Tech Talk

The way we identify ourselves on the internet is with a username and password. Usually the username is either our email, our name, or some other identifier we use repeatedly.

Many times your username is used to identify comments that you make on the site. To steal your account all an attacker needs to do is guess your password, since in most cases your username is readily available.

Recently there was a fatal crash of a driver using the Tesla Model S’s autopilot feature. This brought discussions of driver assist technologies to the forefront. There are a number of companies working on developing self driving cars including Tesla, Google, Apple, and BMW.

Tesla’s autopilot uses Autosteer to keep the car in the current lane and Traffic-Aware Cruise Control to maintain the car’s speed. On a highway, the car will virtually drive itself. Tesla’s autopilot requires that the driver’s hands stay on the wheel while driving to enforce driver engagement.

There is extensions to web browsers like IE, Firefox, and Chrome that remove the ads from the web page when it is shown. These Ad blockers were developed to solve a real issue. Many sites had intrusive ads and even worse some scammers were using ads to deliver ransomware and other malware. The ad serving companies seemed unable to stop the scammers from using their ads.

The ad blocking software protected its users from being bothered by intrusive ads and possibly receiving malware. Adblock is the most popular of these extensions and claims 40 million users.

If you use https rather than http when connecting to sites you are more secure. You have added assurance that you are actually getting to the site you intended to go to. There is malware that can hijack your Domain Name Service (DNS) and send you to a different site than requested. This fails with https, because they will not be able to provide a certificate for that site. Our web site https://hernandosun.com/ recently switched to defaulting all traffic to https.

The idea behind Tech on Tap is that in Hernando County we have business and government employers that struggle to find candidates for technology positions. We also have a number of technology professionals that work remotely from their homes or in Tampa. If they lose their job they look for a job in Tampa, because they are not aware of what is available within the technology sector in Hernando County. We are doing an event at Marker 48 on Wednesday June 29 at 6pm where professionals and businesses can meet one another.

Have you ever sat for an hour while your computer displays 5 minutes left? It is very common for the progress indicator on the computer give you a totally inaccurate reading. You may wonder why it is so hard to make an accurate progress indicator.

There are a number of signs that your computer is compromised. You start seeing lots of popup ads. Your default search engine has been changed to something that you do not recognize. When you try to go places on the web you are getting redirect to other sites.

One of the most common vectors for home users to have malware installed on their computers is via their web browser. It used to be enough to avoid going to sites that were of a questionable nature. Recently that changed, cybercriminals have started to use advertising served by google and yahoo to install malware on the computers. This is mostly done through vulnerabilities in flash and javascript ads.

SPRING HILL- Uber is a simple alternative to taking a taxi, if you are good with a smart phone. You just install the Uber app on your smartphone. When you want to be picked up you activate the app and choose the Uber XL option and tell it where you would like to go. It gives you a range of what the ride would cost. It also tells you how long the driver will take to reach you.

You can accept what the Uber app says and a driver will come pick you up. If you do not feel comfortable going with the driver for some reason you can cancel at that point. You may be charged a fee.